Independent Fails To Support Views On Events
by John Weckerle
In the August 27 issue of The Independent, editor Wally Gordon offers opinions on how Edgewood should conduct its festivals, including suggestions on improving the parade held during the Run, Rally & Rock celebration. I was unfortunately unable to attend the parade, so I cannot argue effectively with Mr. Gordon’s viewpoints. I did attend both this year’s music festival and the Run, Rally & Rock event held at Wildlife West Nature Park.
Mr. Gordon’s editorial contains some statements that should be addressed. Mr. Gordon states that “in a town with no motels, only three small sit-down restaurants and no real art galleries or arts and crafts shops, the financial impact of tourism is limited…” Edgewood has at least eight eateries: Katrina’s East Mountain Grill, Chili Hills, China Chef, Pizza Barn, Subway, two McDonalds, and a Dairy Queen (I’m not sure I’d call Starbucks a “restaurant,” but they are here, also).  There are three gas stations that probably see an uptick in their sales, and it’s anybody’s guess as to how much increase other businesses see.
Mr. Gordon asserts that “because tourists have no place to stay, short, concentrated events are more suitable to the town than multi-day festivals or those on scattered dates.” Wildlife West offers dry camping, which reportedly sees a good bit of use, during the music festival. Area bed-and-breakfast operations also provide places to stay, as do the Red Arrow campground and the motels in nearby Moriarty – and if the Town approves the two-foot height variance requested by Liberty Development, there may be a hotel in Edgewood sooner than later. The current multi-day events are enjoyed by many and provide an opportunity for people who cannot attend one day to make it on another – and some of these events have so much going on that more than one day is absolutely necessary.
Mr. Gordon states that the music festival should be combined with the Town celebration to create a single one-day event. We ask: Why? Do other communities limit themselves to only one event per year? These events are well attended and well received, and there seems no reason to combine them at this time.
Mr. Gordon asks if we can think of other villages, towns, or cities that charge for their community celebrations and says that the Independent cannot think of any. Well, here at New Mexico Central, we have advanced technology that allows us to investigate issues of this nature. A quick Google search reveals that there are plenty of other communities that charge admission to their celebrations and associated events. A few examples include Evergreen, CO; Springville, UT; Middleburg, VA; and Fairfax, VA. I am sure there are many more; those are just a few from just the first three pages of results.
Mr. Gordon’s editorial seems to be essentially a restatement of the latest arguments against the Town events so many have enjoyed and endorsed – arguments that seem to have originated with Edgewood Mayor Bob Stearley. Like the previous arguments, they do not seem to stand up to scrutiny. In our opinion, the events should continue as they have in the past, and the Town should sponsor them.
4 Responses “Independent Fails To Support Views On Events”
Sometimes I think Mr. Gordon should hold himself to editing or start running a newspaper. ;>)
Any publicity that mentions Edgewood is good!
If we “build” the events the people (and hotels and more restaurants) will come. The anti-development bias of the “no development retrogrades” continues to pervade Mr. Gordon’s paper.
For one, who is so negative to Edgewood’s development, to expand and conduct his business here, is hard for this writer to comprehend. With his always less than favorable attitude towards this community, I would think that he would (correction “should”) move his journalistic efforts elsewhere?
“Mr. Gordon asks if we can think of other villages, towns, or cities that charge for their community celebrations?”
Although Mr. Gordon’s tunnel vision is legendary, I am appalled, yes, shocked and appalled Mr. Weckerle that you have to rely upon your technology to draw upon examples as far flung as “Middleburg and Fairfax, Virginia”.
Perhaps it is emblematic of the “Elephant in the Living Room” syndrome, but you certainly need look no further than our immediate neighbors and their quaint and understated “International” Balloon Fiesta.
At $6 a head and $10 a car for parking, with almost 100,000 visitors a day, where do these people get off? And too, historically, Albuquerque has shared Edgewood’s dilemma of not having adequate facilities to host the spectators who come to their celebration, so towns, often times fifty or sixty miles distant, have had to take up Albuquerque’s slack and make up for their lack of vision and planning.
Now perhaps if Albuquerque were to share in our surplus of Tunnel Visionairies, they might learn the wisdom of trimming back the excesses of their celebrations.
I, for one, would welcome just a single, simple day of balloon celebrating instead of day after endless day of attention grabbing media circus expositions, and let’s not even talk about all the filthy money those unwashed foreigners leave behind.
Bully for you Mr. Gordon. Don’t let those “Yea Sayers” dissuade you from your predisposed ethics, no matter how questionable they are.
Well, I was looking for somewhat smaller events, and some geographic “diversity” to show that this is actually a very common practice – pretty much everywhere. Your point is well taken, though – and while we’re at it, I might as well point out that Albuquerque charges admission to its municipally funded biopark EVERY DAY, and not just during “community events.”
Of course, Wildlife West is not owned by the Town of Edgewood, but if the Town is willing to lease the park for a day, as Mr. Gordon suggests, pay all the expenses for the music festival (assuming it remains at its current caliber), and throw open the gates, nothing would please me more.